First UIUC now NIU and SIU are under investigation for clout, and political influence in admissions.  First the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne is found to have had a list of students who would get admission as a political favor.  Now Northern Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University, are in on the shenanigans as well. 

Here in Chicago we have a anecdote that sums up so much of the way the government in the city of Chicago, County of C(r)ook and state of Illinois work.  Abner Mikva on how he got started in politics...

One of the stories that is told about my start in politics is that on the way home from law school one night in 1948, I stopped by the ward headquarters in the ward where I lived. There was a street front, and the name Timothy O'Sullivan, Ward Committeeman, was painted on the front window. I walked in and I said "I'd like to volunteer to work for Stevenson and Douglas." This quintessential Chicago ward committeeman took the cigar out of his mouth and glared at me and said, "Who sent you?" I said, "Nobody sent me." He put the cigar back in his mouth and he said, "We don't want nobody that nobody sent."

People often just quote that ward committeeman when they get to talking about how things work here  "We don't want nobody that nobody sent."  That says it all.

None of this surprises us Illinoisans.  In hindsight I feel like a fool for thinking  that the economy of favors that runs along side the economy of money here in Illinois would be kept totally  out of higher education.  I should not be surprised that at times considerations that are not simply academic play a part in admission decisions.

I have seen this operate all my life here, for example, last October my mother was in Cook County Hospital.  When I went to pick her up, I waited for two hours, while she waited in her room for two hours.  Until finally she found somebody she knew from when she worked there, over a decade ago, who arranged for her to be transported down stairs.  Basically my mother had to call in a favor at county hospital in order to get adequate treatment.  Was it wrong for her to do that?  Should she have just waited there hours and hours more?  How many people are just left to languish because they aren't connected?

As far as education is concerned, I was in a non-physics course at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Most of the students in the course were doing bad.  It was towards the end of the semester.  One of the students actually tried to bribe the professor with a bag of Dorito's.  I kid you not.  Not even a big bag.  Like a bag you would get from a vending machine.   The professor was not swayed.  However the fact that they thought that could work speaks volumes.   I quipped that professors only take a plain manila envelope of non sequential 10's and 20's!  The class laughed.   That should probably have been shocking.

I have no special insight into the clout issue.  Do I think that the powers that have played a role in my academic career have made decisions based on political concerns rather than dispassionate academic reasoning and logic.  Yes.  Sometimes to my detriment, sometimes to my advantage. 

If any care to comment. What does this say to you about the scholarship of Illinoisans?  Would a degree from UIC, UIUC, NIU, or SIU now bring suspicion, where it once brought credibility?